Last week, a blog cropped up on Facebook and caused quite a stir in the world of social media. The author shared her decision to leave a twelve step program. After a period of self-exploration, she discovered another recovery pathway that worked for her. Once her post started making the rounds, she was subjected to…
Some of you may recall our recent post highlighting the Law of Attraction: We explained the ideology – namely that positive thoughts attract positive outcomes and negative thoughts attract negative outcomes – and briefly presented its history, applications, and criticisms. However, one question we neglected to answer is how, exactly, we incorporate the Law of…
Most people are familiar with the phrase “addiction is a family disease,” but what does this sentiment really mean? While the disease model of addiction is correct in the assertion that addiction is a chronic, progressive condition characterized by physiological changes in the brain, it tends to ignore the environmental and developmental factors which cause…
Recovery Month 2018 is in full swing! According to the official website, this year’s theme is “Join the Voices for Recovery: Invest in Health, Home, Purpose, and Community. The 2018 theme explores how integrated care, a strong community, sense of purpose, and leadership contribute to effective treatments that sustain the recovery of persons with mental and…
The arrival of the changing foliage means that addiction treatment advocates will be pushing recovery into the forefront of social awareness by means of both education and celebration. Why? For 29 years, September has been designated as Recovery Month. Recovery deserves celebration more than anything we can think of at the Process Recovery Center, but…
Readers! Take heed: The following is not going to be an unabashed endorsement of the Law of Attraction. In fact, one could make the argument that the Law of Attraction is less of a law and more of an imperfect idea; albeit an idea containing some important slivers of truth. Like any religious, spiritual, or…
Evidence based practice is a buzz phrase in the healthcare world, but what does it mean and – more importantly – how does it relate to you as a consumer of addiction treatment and mental healthcare services? According to the Oregon Addiction and Mental Health Division (AMH), evidence based practice is defined as “programs or…
The word ‘God’ is one of the most contentious words in the dictionary; not because there is anything wrong with it, but because people’s varying conceptions of God have been a source of conflict for thousands of years. Since the word God – or “higher power” – is regularly utilized in twelve step programs (and…
In 1982, President Ronald Reagan declared a “war on drugs” (a term previously used by President Richard Nixon in 1971). From that moment on, the peddlers of illicit drugs were vilified and so, too, were the human beings who used them. In the 1970s and 1980s, the government presumably did not have a thorough understanding…
When someone shares that they have ten, twenty, thirty, or more years of recovery, it’s hard to conceive of such a lengthy amount of time without a drink or a drug. In early recovery, the question of how to get sober can overshadow the question of how to sustain long-term recovery. Unfortunately, this oversight often…